Remembering Joseph Grodin, former California Supreme Court justice

Joseph Grodin, a Berkeley resident for over half a century and a California Supreme Court justice ousted from the court for opposing the death penalty, died Sunday at 94.

As a high school junior, Joe Grodin traveled to postwar France in 1947 with the World Boy Scout Jamboree, seeing the effects of war, and hearing from survivors about life under fascism. It was one of the early influences on a young man born in 1930 who would become a labor lawyer, a legal scholar, a law professor, a member of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, a presiding justice on the California Court of Appeal and an associate justice of the California Supreme Court.

Born Joseph Raymond Grodin, Joe lived his early years in Piedmont and attended Sunday school at Temple Sinai in Oakland. As an adult he talked about his childhood in Piedmont and his awareness of it being an all-white, primarily all gentile community, with “pervasive antisemitism” that he experienced throughout his school years. He said this experience made him sensitive to how it feels like to be an outsider.

A graduate from Piedmont High in 1948, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a law degree from Yale. A recipient of a Fulbright grant, he earned a PhD from the London School of Economics. Joe and his wife Janet moved their family to Berkeley in 1967.  

Joe practiced labor law for 17 years in San Francisco representing unions, first as a member and later as a partner at the firm headed by Mathew Tobriner. During a time of turmoil in the 1970s involving the right of California farm workers to collectively organize in labor unions, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Joe to the newly formed Agriculture Labor Relations Board. Gov. Brown would later appoint Joe to the California Court of Appeal (1979) and as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court (1982). 

Joe’s life-long love of the outdoors — with countless adventures of hiking, camping and occasionally getting lost — became part of the “stories” often told about him. It was said that each time the governor tried to contact him for an appointment, a message had to be left because Joe and family or friends would be off in the wilderness beyond the reach of telephones. 

California Supreme Court justices must be confirmed by the electorate at the first election for a governor after their appointment. A movement to oust the “liberal” justices in 1986 — particularly death penalty opponents — resulted in the removal of Joe along with justices Cruz Reynoso and Rose Bird.

A former part-time law professor at UC Hastings, Joe resumed teaching for many years and loved the interaction with his students and colleagues. 

His death came a little over eight months after the passing of his wife of 72 years, Janet Grodin. He is survived by daughters Sharon and Lisa Grodin, grandchildren Anya Rome, Evan Cohen and Michael Cohen. His two older brothers, Clifford Grodin and Richard Grodin, pre-deceased him.

Shortly after his wife Janet’s death last year, Joe moved from his long time Berkeley home to St. Paul’s Towers in Oakland, a senior residence by Lake Merritt. There he made new friends and enjoyed a sense of community and possibility. His daily walk at Lake Merritt was a source of pride as well as a continuation of a lifelong connection to the outdoors. 

Very soon after moving in he began planning a speaker series for the residents. But a bad fall in January began a steep decline in his health and capacity. Remarkably, he got up out of his wheelchair and stood at the podium to introduce the first of his guest speakers, just days before his final hospitalization. 

Services are pending. Donations may be made in Joe’s honor to the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice, or to the organization of your choice working to support our democracy and the rule of law.